Conventional colostomies involve a surgical procedure in which the intestine is severed and an end of the intestine is exteriorized through an incision in the abdominal wall of a patient. The anastomosis of the intestine to the peritoneum and skin of the abdominal wall is such as to provide a passage for intestinally-contained fecal matter to pass to the outside of the patient's body. The nipple-like termination of this passage is called the "stoma", the Latin term for "mouth".
The foregoing operation results in a loss of continence for the patient and he or she must typically wear a polymer pouch on the outside of the body or a reconstructed pouch of surgically enlarged intestinal tissue on the inside of the body in order to collect the fecal matter passing through the abdominal stoma, which additionally necessitates surgical relocation of the intestine from its natural anal opening to an artificial abdominal stoma site. In order to avoid such incontinence several types of occlusion devices have been proposed for closing off the stoma in order that a patient need not be burdened with a pouch. No such device has had either a true, sphincter-like, mechanical action or allowed the intestinal transcutaneous elimination passage to remain in its natural location.
Most such closure devices require a complicated surgical procedure, involving an invasion into the intestine itself. Furthere, any such closure device located on the abdominal wall or immediately beneath the abdominal wall of the area of the stoma is "unnatural" in its specific location.
Aside from proper control of the lower colon by appropriate closure devices, there is further a need for the use of such devices in controlling other eliminating passages such as the urethra for post prostatectomy patients, having undergone the trans-urethral resection procedure.